When chef Begum Abida Rasheed travels she has to invariably pay an extra person's fare to ensure that she and her beloved cooking vessels such as the 'uruli' (brass pot) and the 'cheena chatti' (cast iron frying pan) are never parted!
"It is true. Often at airports I have to take out and show them that the bulges in my handbag are indeed utensils. They have been with me for the last 35 years and am reluctant to check them in. These are highly coveted and are the essence of my cooking," says Rasheed, considered a specialist in Moplah cuisine.
The Calicut-based chef has brought with her here a festival of food from the northern part of Kerala known as the Malabar region, where centuries ago Arabs landed through the sea to trade in spices and silk.
The festival titled 'The Malabar Spice Route' that began at The Park hotel's Fire restaurant and scheduled to continue till December 13 has authentic dishes of the state's ethnic Moplah or Mapillah community with its staples like Biryani, Neichoru (ghee fried rice), Puttu (steamed rice cakes) and Pathiri (rice pancakes) all synonymous with the region's food.
Rasheed, who quit her position as a consultant chef at a five star hotel now holds food festivals across parts of the country and abroad to acquaint people about Malabari food, about which she says even people from Kerala are little aware.
"Moplah cooking is light on the stomach and quite different from the Muslim food from other places in India like Hyderabad, Kashmir and places in the north which use more oil and are heavy on spices," says Rasheed.
Restricted use of spices and the absence of ginger garlic paste as well as soups and starters besides copious amounts of coconut oil and coconut milk are the hallmark of Moplah food according to the chef.
"We add chilli powder to onions and mix it with water. Our particular food does not accept the flavour of other chillies so chillies like the Kashmiri chilly is just added for the colour and not its flavour," says the chef.
It is said that in India the food habits, cooking styles and cuisines witness a change with every 10 kilometers or so, the same as dialects of its languages.
"Even people inside my state are not aware of our cuisine. For instance did you know that pathiris also vary from region to region. Towards the coast the rice pancakes are leaf thin while towards the hills of Waynad the pathiris as as thick as a tyre!" Rasheed says.
Rasheed who says she started cooking when she was in her
5th standard hails from a traditional Moplah family which follows a matriarchal society where the 'Mapillai' or bridegroom comes to stay with his wife at her house.
"We have a culture of feasts and parties and we have the best of the food to make sure the groom is looked after well. Cooking forms an essential part of it," says Rasheed, whose two out of three daughters have been married and the youngest is gearing up to follow in her footsteps as a chef.
The quintessential food is the Moplah biriyani, which can be made of fish, mutton or chicken but the key ingredient is the rice. The chef says the Moplahs also have a fastidious style of eating.
"I have used Kaima rice that is grown in Bengal especially for us. It brings out the rice's fragrance. Also, our biriyanis are different. They are served with the masala on the side and not mixed into the rice," Rasheed says.
The food festival menu includes Fish Biriyani where slices of fish are cooked with Kerala spices and uses the small grained jeerakasala rice from the state. The Thalassery Mutton Dum biriyani uses kaima rice.
"Fish tastes best when cooked in an earthen pot and wherever I go I take it along with me. I have had chefs in so many hotels ask for my vessels but I refuse to part with them. They have been traveling with me for the past 35 years. Nowadays cooking in such traditional vessels have been forsaken by the modern woman but they fail to understand that it is part of their culture," says Rasheed.
While Moplah cuisine is predominantly non vegetarian, there is plenty to keep the vegetarians happy.
"Mapillah dal is made using tamarind and the vegetable ishtu is quite delicious," says the chef.
Various regimes -- French , British, Portuguese and Arab from the 17th to the 20 the century have had influences on the region's cuisine.
Rasheed says there is a difference between the stew and the ishtu. The Mutton ishtu is prepared using coconut milk, white pepper onion and potato with pathiri while the vegetable stew can be made even with water.
Among the appetizers included in the festival are Vadas or fritters made from onion and lentils served with coconut and green mango chutney besides Pathri stuffed with mushroom and paneer in coconut gravy and steamed in banana leaf.
To cater to the sweet tooth are typical Moplah delicacies including the Chakara choru (whole wheat cooked in milk and coconut jaggery), Elaneer (tender coconut) payasam and Moplah specialty halwa besides crunchy banana fritters.
